Western Union considering using Bitcoin

[rbdrbd]

I'm confused.

What could WU do with Bitcoin that they couldn't already do with fiat?

Wouldn't they have a huge float in an account in each currency and just arbitrage between the accounts to keep them level?

Why would it be necessary to go Fiat *Location 1* > BTC *Tranferring* > Fiat *Location 2* when they can just go Fiat > Fiat

Western Union should look at bitcoin at an oppurtunity instead of a threat. Western Union + Bitcoin would be the perfect marriage.
They got dealers around the world that can thandle cash and financial muscles and would become the no 1 place for people to convert between fiat and bitcoin in person.

Exactly. Their dealer network means maintaining the same experience for their customers, while if they utilize BTC as an intermediate step for the transfers, they may be able to reduce the regulatory headache/overhead/cost by a good amount.

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[gollum]

I'm confused.

What could WU do with Bitcoin that they couldn't already do with fiat?

Wouldn't they have a huge float in an account in each currency and just arbitrage between the accounts to keep them level?

Why would it be necessary to go Fiat *Location 1* > BTC *Tranferring* > Fiat *Location 2* when they can just go Fiat > Fiat

Western Union should look at bitcoin at an oppurtunity instead of a threat. Western Union + Bitcoin would be the perfect marriage.
They got dealers around the world that can thandle cash and financial muscles and would become the no 1 place for people to convert between fiat and bitcoin in person.

Exactly. Their dealer network means maintaining the same experience for their customers, while if they utilize BTC as an intermediate step for the transfers, they may be able to reduce the regulatory headache/overhead/cost by a good amount.

Yes, they can use BTC instead of bank transactions, but that will require:
a) BTC / USD dont fluctuate more than a few percent per day (not 30-40% per day!)
b) Ability to hedge the price of BTC/USD (options, futures and ability to go short)
c) Bitcoin can handle larger amounts of transactions per second than today

[moni3z]

They could also just dev a mobile currency backed by bitcoin. Fully automatic with no banks involved, would be epic. I pay out a bunch of money to various people all over the world, once they find out they can just meet somebody in a cafe or mall and push a button on their phone to trade BTC and get cash in hand none of them want to use WU anymore

[bitcoinminer]

Man sends $500 in Western Union.  Arrives 10 minutes later as $100.  Man sends $100 to his Auntie who now has $1000 10 minutes later.

I can't see what could possibly be wrong with this business model.

Auntie sends 1000$ to his son in BTC, that 1000$ is worth 600$ 10 minutes later...
BTC will not function as a payment system or currency until its value stabilizes compared to real life assets such as fiat and commodities.
Right now BTC is only a speculative asset because of the extreme volatility in BTC/USD.

...And then keep in mind certain affiliate companies of Western Union build hardware that frequently and suddenly make it dramatically more difficult to acquire transfer forms (ASIC mining).

[bryant.coleman]

This will never happen. If Western Union accept BTC, then banks, VISA/MASTER and Paypal will boycott it.